Pilot Flying J Execs Enter Guilty Plea

Two Pilot Flying J executives -- Arnold Ralenkotter, and Ashley Smith Judd -- have pleaded guilty to engaging in a scheme to reduce promised rebates to truckers across the country, the Tennessean reports. Employed by Pilot for more than 10 years, Ralenkotter admitted in the plea agreement to reducing promised rebates to truckers and attending training for staffers on how to do the same to other Pilot customers. Judd also participated in the scheme, which ran from 2008 to 2013, “so that Pilot could create and maintain the materially false pretense that those customers were in fact receiving their agreed upon diesel price discount,” according to the seven-page court document outlining the charges. Pilot CEO James A. Haslam has publicly denied any knowledge of the rebate scheme and has promised to repay trucker with 10 percent interest for any money owed.